Ofcom has fined porn sites Playboy TV and Benelux limited, owners of Demand Adult, £100,000 for a lack of secure restrictions to deny underage access of their websites.
The media watchdog found that the sites allowed users to access explicit material without restricting under 18s from accessing it for nearly two months between May and July last year.
The Authority for Television On Demand ruled that the websites had breached Rule 11 of its code, put in place to ensure that under 18-year-olds could not access their content.
The rule reads: “If and on-demand programme service contains material which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of eighteen, the material must be made available in a manner which secures that such persons will not normally see or hear it.”
Both cases were referred to Ofcom for sanctions last August, and led to the imposition of the fines, with Demand Adult fined £65,000 and Playboy fined £35,000 as a result.
The homepage of Demand Adult was found to have displayed hardcore pornographic images which could be viewed by the user after clicking on the ‘Enter I am over 18’ button, which Ofcom claims failed to offer an ‘effective age verification system'.
Meanwhile, Playboy TV also required users to self-certify their age, but unlike Demand Adult, the material on the homepage did not contain explicit sexual detail and a registration was necessary using a debit card to view the content.
The fines will be made payable to HM Paymaster General.